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A review by jennifer_d
Oksana, Behave! by Maria Kuznetsova
3.0
A character-driven story (i.e. not for those who want a strong plot line) that is mostly interesting but also a little underwhelming. However, overall, an enjoyable read, and an interesting example of an immigrant experience in the US.
I enjoyed the diverse set of characters and the fact that Oksana has her fair share of flaws, yet she evolves over the course of the novel. I'm not a big fan of the large jumps in timeline, I usually found it disruptive. Additionally, some of the time periods of the novel use a real major national event at the center to (realistically) contribute to Oksana's character development, except they are a little too brief/abrupt for my taste. It's hard to adequately cover this much of a person's life in relatively few pages, and I think this novel could have used some additional depth.
I enjoyed the diverse set of characters and the fact that Oksana has her fair share of flaws, yet she evolves over the course of the novel. I'm not a big fan of the large jumps in timeline, I usually found it disruptive. Additionally, some of the time periods of the novel use a real major national event at the center to (realistically) contribute to Oksana's character development, except they are a little too brief/abrupt for my taste. It's hard to adequately cover this much of a person's life in relatively few pages, and I think this novel could have used some additional depth.